A critique and review of the Fighter class

[Mort]

Accept that tiers are different. And have them actually scale.

That's a good suggestion.

Another one:

Recognize that the fighter class is doing A LOT of heavy lifting and offer some alternative mythic, high fantasy, etc. suggestions that are more than joe average fighter - possibly in the DMG. Realistically, this kind of thing is more begging for 3rd party support (which is more likely) but I bet WoTC could do pretty well putting out (for ex.) a Bo9S equivalent for 5e.

 

[tetrasodium]

Accept that tiers are different. And have them actually scale.

I thought to ask how you think that would function, but I don't need to because such a thing already exists. Despite having lots of choices here is one way three players could show up to a game of rifts.
Alice can play a freaking dragon (like adult dragon level dragon who multiplies their hp by a hundred basically)
Bob can play a freaking mecha pilot with mecha that has hundreds of hp & a railgun that does hundreds of hp damage
Cindy can play a homeless drifter who probably has a knife or something & maybe a bedroll, it's a glorious disaster.

 

[Mort]

I thought to ask how you think that would function, but I don't need to because such a thing already exists. Despite having lots of choices here is one way three players could show up to a game of rifts.
Alice can play a freaking dragon (like adult dragon level dragon who multiplies their hp by a hundred basically)
Bob can play a freaking mecha pilot with mecha that has hundreds of hp & a railgun that does hundreds of hp damage
Cindy can play a homeless drifter who probably has a knife or something & maybe a bedroll, it's a glorious disaster.

Are you saying this is a good thing? Because RIFTS is the posterchild for WILDLY different power levels.

IF you play you MUST set baseline assumptions for the group or there WILL be not only ridiculous power imbalances but even basic skill imbalances (some OCCs are just flat better with their skills than others, regardless of combat prowess).

Also I'm not sure how this applies to his answer or tiers? Tiers is accepting that level 1-4 is very different form 5-10 is different from 11-15 etc.

With RIFTS the PCs are completely imbalanced from moment 1 and stay that way (despite having a leveling mechanic, most of the time level doesn't actually mean all that much with a few, usually magic using, classes being the exception).

 

[Garthanos]

That's a good suggestion.

Recognize that the fighter class is doing A LOT of heavy lifting

Personally I think the core class was just built too inflexible ie it could cover a lot more without seeming drastically different doctorbadwolf and I and some others were working on such a thing.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Accept that tiers are different. And have them actually scale.

So the person who doesn’t think non-magical humans should be able to do superhuman things should just not play at higher tiers? Ummm.

Like I said, I don’t see how one game satisfies both camps.

 

[Garthanos]

So the person who doesn’t think non-magical humans should be able to do superhuman things should just not play at higher tiers? Ummm.

I wont play lower levels ... he can not play higher levels.

 

[Mort]

So the person who doesn’t think non-magical humans should be able to do superhuman things should just not play at higher tiers? Ummm.

Like I said, I don’t see how one game satisfies both camps.

The problem is one of genre acceptance.

It's kind of ridiculous to think of 11+ level D&D characters (in a typical non grim and gritty variant world) as "ordinary" humans.

 

[Bill Zebub]

The problem is one of genre acceptance.

It's kind of ridiculous to think of 11+ level D&D characters (in a typical non grim and gritty variant world) as "ordinary" humans.

I can see how one could think of 11+ as extraordinary, but you could say the same thing of 4+.

But I don’t think it’s necessary, nor ridiculous to think otherwise.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I wont play lower levels ... he can not play higher levels.

Yeah, um, like I said, I don’t see how one game satisfies both camps.

 

[James Gasik]

Many people have espoused the idea that high tier play is the devil and think the game's sweet spot ends at around level 7 or so. So why not have low tier gritty games with slow xp advancement that end before everyone evolves into demigods?